A bit ago, I made a post on how we do too much and to stop doing too much. Briefly, I mentioned in that blog post how we are doing so much to the point that we are impractical of factoring in our everyday life, expenses, and keeping up with trends on social media we do not need. What is sold to us everyday and all the time is a vicious circle that ignores the beauty already existing in our grasp.

Here are some things we should get out of our system when we are young and leave in the past:

1. Wearing less makeup
2. Stopped dyeing my hair
3. Making everything I eat
4. Being careful with content I am consuming
5. Consuming content I aspire to be
6. Trend immunity & timeless quality classics
7. Using everything I already have & being resourceful

If you are doing this forever, you are probably a kept woman or a person living off your parents still. I am not criticising or condemning you. There are probably more fulfilling things to do with your life that you will hopefully find out later on.

Everyone is on a different path, but the faster we learn how to fend for ourselves makes our self worth understood at a higher capacity, and we also see others to have deeper values with the simple way they show up. In other words, our judgement gets better on ourselves and others too.

Wearing less makeup

I stopped wearing so much makeup – specifically on my eyes – because eye makeup takes the most energy and time. It also is the part I have to be most careful about. Outside of painting my face, I have been focusing more on taking care of my skin by not putting on any product some days. 

Men are used to not wearing skincare, and shave daily without even cleansing with a lathering face wash. My husband’s skin is amazing even when he goes out for walks in the hot sun. No spots, no scars, no dry cracks. It is a page I am taking a book from. Mr. Dixon says he appreciates my appearance best with my hair tied up and no makeup on, because he loves the shape of my face.

He is the only man I want to impress at the end of the day. If he says it, I am definitely going to keep on doing it. Taking care of my skin now typically requires some form of tinted sun protection, and lip balm. I do not even don lip moisturiser pigmented with natural hues. Why have a lip colour that is exactly the same as my lips? It already looks fabulous the way it is! We need to get used to seeing our faces without makeup – yes, I forego micropowdering and eyeliner tattoo visits. We are already lovely as we are.

Stopped dyeing my hair

Ladies do way too much. At first, I wanted to cut back on time and money spent at salon visits as I started to do my hair at home. Now that my hair is much longer, it is not only more time consuming. But since I have stopped stressing about my hair, ironically all my white hairs have gone away! 

Originally, I did not dye my hair to get rid of the visible silver strands, but to compliment my neutral-cool tone more, and to undue what a bad hairstylist did to my locks. My mane is now grown out, and I cut it at home without adding a touch up of anything, because I missed the way my hair was when looking at photos of how it was when Mr. Dixon and I first met. 

My hair was down to my bum, and I remember sitting on it sometimes. Now, I have the sun to shed a little light on me in the warmer months. I prefer the darker look, but I will take what I am given.

Making everything I eat

It is too easy to fall into the trap of eating what is already available. This could be packaged foods, things that are preserved sitting around in our kitchen, or pre-made food sitting under infrared lights at the grocery store. 

We need to get used to making our food a bit before we are hungry. Then once we dive in, we appreciate it a thousand times more, because we really needed it. It is not just there to shove into our face.

I have been making a ton of hearty and light meals from scratch lately, and it gives me so much more purpose as I serve my family, myself, and truly enjoy the fruits of my labour, because I put a little bit of extra love and effort into it rather than poking holes into a plastic-sealed microwave meal. 

It also makes me feel more fulfilled rather than putting something together last minute right when Mr. Dixon gets home. In my head I ask the question, ‘What was I doing all day that made me put off feeding my family something healthy?’ I was worrying about myself writing blogs or organising my clothes when I could have been ready to sit down with my wonderful husband ready to share a moment with him.

Being careful with content I am consuming

This one catches up with me quite quickly. I start worrying about how I sound. Literally. I use more slang, curse words, and the same vocabulary cycled over and over again when not consuming the right type of content.

Whether it is too many casual speakers on my mobile devices as my iPad or iPhone, or too many episodes of housewives in the background as I work or put the house together, I find myself losing IQ points. Or simply dumbing down everything I say to sound like a teenager who does not speak appropriately or in a manner that is more clear and specific. 

Instead, I turn on lectures by Hillside College’s free online courses, audiobooks of Classics, and any type of educational material. I love listening to an episode of QI from BBC or BritBox in the background of a heavy chore day, a David Attenborough documentary, or Countdown with Jimmy Carr. The more jokes, facts, and witticisms getting me to use my brain as I entertain myself the better!

This also makes learning not boring. I hate listening to dry lectures unless I am absolutely engrossed on my own with such a subject. I can binge for hours, but it is rare that there are tons of commentators who catch my attention. I am tired of podcasts and how much space they take on [insert your device here]. Also, I am currently getting a kick out of Astor Piazzolla’s concertos, reminding myself of all the bits of music theory.

Consuming content I aspire to be

I want to be knowledgeable on everything I do and touch. As the composer David Shapiro said, ‘People are not geniuses. They are geniuses in certain things.’ Something along those lines. 

Everything I want to learn about in my upcoming plans – whether it is interior design for my construction projects, farming the acreage on our manor, or getting my flying licence, I have to dive deep into it! There are so many interesting subjects that have their own world. 

Scratching the surface alone can feel endless, and I want to try everything without any regrets. I do not care if I am no good at each thing I try, but I am willing to give each a few good years of practice even in the worst conditions to give it a shot. A lot of things deserve a chance of having at least been tried several times before ruling it out.

Years ago, I would watch the housewives franchise to see what it is like to be a rich woman in a city, but there were two problems with this: 

1. It was never about their accomplishments, because most of the housewives were business venturing women. Veering into drama is quite the popular plot.
2. I became one in my own right, and saw that it was not everything I wanted haha.

There are so many other things than shopping and being glamorously dressed that they do not hold a candle to. Reading physical books and printed papers have recently been discovered to open up different pathways to the brain over audiobooks and digital articles we scroll. 

Also, birdwatching is something worth doing on my manor, because there are so many different breeds we hear every morning! Knowing the plants and types of grass around me is also useful in my foraging endeavours, and agronomy benefits. Life is so much more than what online content offers. Not to mention fresh air and sunlight haha.

Trend immunity & timeless quality classics

I will be the first to say how I get bored with clothes very fast. HOWEVER, when the clothes are high quality, I wear them dead into the ground. High quality styles look better on you, and that is something I routinely push on my YouTube channel. I am currently on the hunt for some luxurious purchases in our upcoming NYC trip this September. I am hoping to clean out Loro Piana haha. 

Thinning out my wardrobe of polyester and anything that is poorly made or made in China or India has been on the top of my list as the seasons turn. Instead of getting rid of everything entirely, I donate items in fabulous condition – mostly untouched, sad to say – to places near me, or they are sold for little return. 

It is easy for me to get rid of so many clothes, because I find myself not wearing them. There is nothing worse than a closet that looks good only because you want to collect trendy clothes. 

Something fascinating is I am very much drawn to menswear. There is nothing more fabulous that you can be taken seriously in at work than menswear. Especially when it is a well constructed set of pieces you can wear regularly. You are definitely building a brand of luxury showing up well dressed in beautifully made clothes. Bespoke for my main pieces.

Using everything I already have & being resourceful

Even though I am doing consistent inventory on things I do not need and persuading myself to not purchase an exceeding amount, I am currently using what I have into the ground nonetheless.

If there are things I have that are poorly made, made in a controversial regime’s nation, or made of a lesser quality material, I will still wear certain things. Because I know I am going to wear it, and out of respect to my past self, I plan on and will wear what I thought I was going to wear forever, even though it was just a trend back in the day. Obviously, this only applies to certain styles, and not everything, because getting rid of unwanted clutter frees my mind. Wanted clutter – only a small amount – will stay.

Thank you so much for taking time to read the end of this post. I hope you find some inspiration in this and feel free to share with your friends as a free way to help my blog grow. Your support is endlessly appreciated. 

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